


coddle

by brandywine421



Category: Daredevil (TV)
Genre: Gen, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Post-Season/Series 03, Sickfic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-28
Updated: 2018-12-28
Packaged: 2019-09-29 10:34:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,295
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17201885
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brandywine421/pseuds/brandywine421
Summary: "He's certainly tactile today," Maggie said as she looked down at Matthew, bundled underneath a tower of blankets with only his hair and clasping fingers exposed.Foggy smiled, blinking through red-rimmed eyes as he tugs his hands from Matt's fingers. "When his hearing's wonky, touch is the best way to catch his attention. Nobody needs Matt stuck alone in his head for too long."She didn't flinch at the incidental comment. She didn't know if Matthew had confided her relationship to him - she wasn't allowed to speak about it and she wasn't sure she was allowed to 'touch' without implicit permission.She shut down her mental spiral. She should be grateful for any relationship with Matthew, no matter how strained - imagined or not. She deserved the strain."I brought supplies, has he seen a doctor? Karen said something about flu - but I know he got a flu shot - " she walked around to take Foggy's abandoned seat on the coffee-table close enough to the couch to reach.





	coddle

**Author's Note:**

> I deleted my tumblr recently and this was the only fic I managed to find amidst the multitudes of other mess - I did a bunch of ficlets via askbox so I don't have the name of the original prompter but here's the prompt:  
>  __  
> I would love a sickfic. Straight-up Matt gets sick and someone touches his hair and makes him soup and helps him feel better. Dealer's choice as to who the lucky hair-toucher is!

 

 

 

"He's certainly tactile today," Maggie said as she looked down at Matthew, bundled underneath a tower of blankets with only his hair and clasping fingers exposed.

Foggy smiled, blinking through red-rimmed eyes as he tugs his hands from Matt's fingers. "When his hearing's wonky, touch is the best way to catch his attention. Nobody needs Matt stuck alone in his head for too long."

She didn't flinch at the incidental comment. She didn't know if Matthew had confided her relationship to him - she wasn't allowed to speak about it and she wasn't sure she was allowed to 'touch' without implicit permission.

She shut down her mental spiral. She should be grateful for any relationship with Matthew, no matter how strained - imagined or not. She deserved the strain.

"I brought supplies, has he seen a doctor? Karen said something about flu - but I know he got a flu shot - " she walked around to take Foggy's abandoned seat on the coffee-table close enough to the couch to reach.

"Space flu. I mean, _wait_ , you do know, right?"

She liked Foggy, he was a good friend to Matthew and Karen had made it clear it was a necessity to stay on his good side. "About his after-hours activities? Yes, I am quite aware."

"Oh. Good. Well, he was running around with that punk from Queens and got sprayed in the middle of an alien fight way above his pay grade; but he took the antidote like a big boy - " Matt's hands slipped out of the blanket to give him the finger. "And he'll get over it in a few days if he follows directions."

"Which are?" She didn't know if she could help with 'space flu'.

"Treat it like the regular flu," Foggy shrugged. "Fluids, rest, maybe another ice bath if his fever spikes again - "

"No, it's cold," the blankets mumbled hoarsely but it was at least a sign of life outside of a rude gesture. It wasn't natural when he was quiet and calm, Murdocks were supposed to be loud and fiery. She hated that the little time she'd spent with him as an adult had been when he was off his game.

"I'll be back in three hours, I just have to do some things at the office, make nice with the fiancee and grab some more approved juice," Foggy said. "For someone that loves apples, he hates apple juice."

"Take your time, I think I can manage."

Foggy paused to tug on the blankets to reveal Matthew's fever-flushed face. "Be nice for Sister Maggie."

"I'm always nice," Matthew pouted, but visibly relaxed when Foggy patted his hair. "Thanks, Fog."

She walked him to the door and he let out a sigh. "Seriously, thanks for taking a shift. Anybody else could probably be left alone, but I don't trust him to stay off his feet without a minder. He respects you a lot so I think he'll listen to you better than anyone else."

When she shut down her mental spiral again and returned to the couch, Matthew had thrown all the blankets to the floor and was lying facedown on the couch in a thin shirt and loose sweatpants. She carefully placed her hand on the back of his neck to check his temperature and he hummed under the touch.

 

* * *

 

She settled Matthew on the couch again after he'd taken a shower he promised to run cold and a bottle of ginger ale with a label she didn't recognize but was marked as ' _the only one the brat will drink_ ' on a yellow post-it.

The new blanket fort was sleeping soundly so she took advantage to look around the apartment and add more questions to her mental list that she could never ask. The books on his shelf seemed to be an even mix of thick braille law books and large print fiction but the bottom shelves of all the collections were lined with poetry and regency romance novels with tiny print or scandalizing covers. The guest shelf, she smiled to herself.

A soft knock caught her attention and she hurried over, annoyed to have to stand on tiptoes to see through the peephole. She didn't recognize the large man hiding his face under the baseball cap but he had a bag labeled with a local Chinese restaurant and a thermometer sticking out of his coat pocket.

_Huh_. She said a silent prayer and opened the door. The man blinked in visible shock. "Sister. Uh. Ma'am."

"Can I help you?"

"I brought soup.  Karen said Foggy wouldn't be here so I thought - " he stammered and she remembered his face, albeit with more bruises, from muted news reports.  She wasn't sure that Frank Castle was an appropriate kind of friend for Matthew to have.

Frank's eyes snapped past her and she turned to see Matthew's hand waving from the pile of blankets.  So his hearing wasn't completely down for the count.

She stepped aside silently so he could enter and he hurried to the couch. She couldn't make out what he said, his words low but soft, more like a purr than a growl. She locked the door.

"Sister Maggie?" Frank said, standing behind her when she turned around. "I didn't tell Matt I was coming, I didn't intend to surprise you. I'm Pete."

"Are you?" she replied, raising an eyebrow.

"It's on all my ID so, if you please," he shifted nervously. "Got a shot to do things better so I'm Pete."

"Noted," Maggie conceded. She couldn't fault a man's quest for redemption considering - _well_ \- everything.

"Thank you. I'll get out of your hair - " he started but the blankets cursed suddenly and they both watched as Matt knocked over the carton of soup, thankfully sealed, as he fumbled on the couch.

"You seem to know your way around, get a spoon and a bowl before we have to get the mop," Sister Maggie ordered and Frank Castle obeyed like a good soldier. Or a good friend to Matthew, but that wasn't her decision to make.

"Sorry," Matt said, sitting up with a befuddled expression and his hair fluffed in disarray. "Thought I could - "

"Don't apologize if your accident means you're willing to eat the soup," Maggie cut him off. She knew he hated being helpless and he'd been surprisingly well-behaved compared to his first weeks in the orphanage, both times.

"Frank knows the cook, he knows what I like," Matthew said quietly.

"I think he wants me to call him Pete," she replied, equally quiet.

"Foggy does _not_ need to know that Frank came to visit, but you can tell him about Pete," Matthew nodded as if that cleared it up.

"I thought you were being honest with him now."

"I need him to like _Pete_ before I tell him about _Frank_. Like you did - keeping your secret, you know?" Matt asked her. "I wouldn't have accepted it as easily if I didn't know you first."

"Oh."  She thought - oh.

"I haven't told Foggy about you yet, for the same reason," he admitted.

Frank joined them, pushing the blankets into a shape that could support a bowl and placed it between him and Matthew. "I made the critical error of getting on Nelson's bad side and it's a long way back. Eat some of this so I can get out before he turns up. I left my guns at home." He pushed his hands into Matthew's hair, smoothing it down into a muss instead of a mess.

She swallowed, checked her mental spiral at the threat of Nelson's wrath and decided that Pete was an appropriate friend for Matthew - for now. They both apparently had to pass Nelson's test so she could use an ally that could settle Matthew with a touch as Nelson himself.


End file.
